Go with me back to Mark chapter
10. Mark chapter 10 and let's read
again beginning in verse 32. And they were in the way going
up to Jerusalem. And Jesus went before them, and
they were amazed. And as they followed, they were
afraid. And he took again the twelve
and began to tell them what things should happen to him, saying,
Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man shall be delivered
unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn
him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles. And they
shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him,
and shall kill him. And the third day he shall rise
again. I don't believe it will come
as a surprise to anyone, but our subject this morning is Jesus
Christ crucified. Jesus Christ crucified. I thought two things about that.
I read that. It's just so plain what it is. There's no hidden meaning here.
It's so clear. I read that and I thought two
things about this right here. Number one, Could we imagine
going before God Almighty to worship Him on any other subject
than Jesus Christ crucified? Could we imagine going to appear
before Him coming with any other subject than Jesus Christ crucified? It's all we have. It's all we
have. If he said that all our righteousnesses
are filthy rags, it's all we have. Literally. The second thing I realized is
this. It's the only subject we want. It's the only subject we want. Get a group of believers together
and have a preacher come in who's not preaching Jesus Christ crucified. Let's see how long he lasts.
It's the only subject we want, the only one. My great uncle
on my dad's side, his name was Harold Stoniker, and he lived in Tupelo, Mississippi. And a couple of times a year
as I was growing up, I grew up in Franklin, Tennessee, and my
parents were, and I was too, we were all born in Alexandria,
Louisiana. And we would make the trip down to visit grandparents
and relatives and things like that. And usually, not always,
but most of the time, we would take the Natchez Trace Parkway.
It runs from Nashville, Tennessee to Natchez, Mississippi. And
it runs right through Tupelo. So, you know, a couple times
a year, we're going right through there. My dad would pull off
and visit for a few minutes with his uncle. We'd go into his house,
maybe 30 minutes. And growing up, you know, they'd
tell us, we're going to stop here for a minute and see Uncle
Harold. This is no exaggeration. Every
time we went, I knew exactly what they were going to talk
about. every time we went. He had one sentence, one particular
sentence, he said, every time I ever physically saw the man. He was the tail gunner of a B-24
bomber in World War II. That's a bad place to be. And they were flying over Germany
and two German fighters came down. I've heard this story so
many times. Two German fighters came down over top of their plane
and shot out one of their engines. And the plane started going down.
And his buddies, the rest of the crew, one of them came and
tapped him on the shoulder and gave the symbol, we're jumping
out. We're not staying in this place. And this is the sentence he said
every single time. Every single time. He said, I
made two jumps that day. My first one and my last one. Every time. But anyway, they
parachuted out and they landed behind the German lines. They
were captured and became prisoners of war. And they were treated horribly. I mean, horribly. They were beaten. They were interrogated. They were barely given enough
food to survive. Barely. He said in this POW camp,
I think he said it was eight men. They would group them in
about eight men. And there'd be a garbage can for if it was
eight men. And every day, or however often
they fed them, they would throw a few rotten potatoes and one
loaf of moldy bread in that garbage can. And those men had to evenly
divide that out amongst themselves. And he was in that POW camp for
two years. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Two years. Sitting there, eating
those rotten potatoes. that moldy bread for two years. But one day, American soldiers
stormed the camp and set every prisoner in that camp free. Every one of them, all of his
men that were in that airplane, every one of them made it out
alive. They all jumped out of that plane,
landed down there, went through two years of a POW camp, and
every single one of them made it out alive. Every one of them. Until the day that man died,
all he wanted to talk about was how horrible his captivity was. and the day he was set free.
That's all he wanted to talk about. And that is a believer. That is a child of God. All he wants to talk about is
how horrible his captivity was in the day Christ set him free.
That's all he wants to talk about. This subject right here, we read
these three verses. I asked Brother Tony to read
and I said, Tony, it's only three verses and they deserve to be
read alone. They're glorious. This subject
is precious to us. This is not just something that
makes sense to us. This subject right here, the
Apostle Peter said, His blood is precious. He said, His promise is precious. And he said, He, oh He's so precious. Verse 32 says, And they were
in the way, going up to Jerusalem. And Jesus went before them, and
they were amazed, and as they followed, they were afraid. The reason they were amazed and
afraid is because they already knew what was going to happen
to them. He had already told them. They knew what was waiting in Jerusalem.
And they couldn't believe he was actually going to go. Look
at chapter 8. Turn back a couple of pages to
chapter 8 and look at verse 31. And after three days, rise again. That's what he told them. All right, now look at chapter
9. Verse 31, For he taught his disciples and
said unto them, The Son of Man is delivered into the hands of
men, and they shall kill him And after that he is killed,
he shall rise the third day. Look at chapter 10. Verse 32 says, And they were
in the way going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus went before them, and
they were amazed. And as they followed, They were
afraid. Now our Lord, I loved seeing
Him before them. Here they are amazed and they're
following. He wasn't hiding behind them. We're going to Jerusalem.
You guys go first. He said, His face like a flint.
They were amazed. They were amazed at this man.
And they followed and they were afraid. And He took again the
twelve and began to tell them what things should happen unto
Him. saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem,
and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests and unto
the scribes. You know who that is? The Son
of Man is going to be laid hold of by those in religion. The
chief priests and the scribes. And they shall condemn Him to
death and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles. And they shall
mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and
shall kill him. And the third day he shall rise
again." He's going to rise again. Now why is this the subject? We're talking about one subject
here. Why is this the one theme of
all scripture? You know what the theme of the
book of Genesis is? Jesus Christ crucified. And the theme of the book of
Revelation? You know what the first word
is in that book? This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Start to finish. Why is this
the one subject of scripture? There's an account that our Lord
recorded in this word of something that happened to a man. And what
made me think of it was the last line right here in our text.
The third day he shall rise again. He'll rise again. This account
of what happened to a man will perfectly explain why, why this
is the subject of scripture, the subject for every believer. He did it for a man named Lazarus.
Lazarus. Let's turn over and look at his
story. And we're going to stay here for the rest of this message.
Go with me to John 11. John chapter 11, verse 1 says, Now certain man was sick, whose
name was Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister
Martha. It was that Mary which anointed
the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose
brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, him whom thou lovest is sick." We
all, at one point or another, have to deal with sickness, don't
we? At one point or another. Do you
know why we get sick? You know why we get sick? You
know why you guys are in business? You know why you're in business?
Sin. You know why we have hospitals?
One reason. Sin. Sin. We all have to deal with sickness.
And the reason is because we're sinners. Every soul that is born
into this world except for Jesus Christ. was or is born into this world
in sin, tainted by sin, infected with it. And this is proof that
Lazarus was a sinner. He was sick. For every single one of us, the
sickness of sin leads to death. Isn't that right? The only reason
we die is sin. But there's something in here
that set Lazarus apart. Something that set him apart
from the rest of the world. Verse three says, therefore his
sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest. He whom thou lovest. Don't you
love how they didn't say, Lord, now he's sick and we're gonna
ask for you to do this. Don't you love that? All they
said was, they sent a messenger and they said, you go say, Lord,
behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. God loved this man. Was there
something in Lazarus to love? Was he a lovable man? The answer
is no. He was just a dying sinner, that's
all he was. He came from the same lump as
every other sinner. What made the difference? What
caused the difference? God chose to love him. That's
what it is. Verse 3 says, Therefore his sister
sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is
sick. When Jesus heard that, he said,
This sickness is not unto death. It's not unto death. Now look
with me at verse 14. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead. I thought he said it wasn't unto
death. It's not. It's not. It's not unto death.
Verse 4, when Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not
unto death. But for the glory of God, that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby. What's he talking about? He's talking about what we read
back in Mark chapter 10. The event we read about in Mark
chapter 10. God's children are born into
this world dead in trespasses and sins. Isn't that what the
word says? How dead is dead? Can I ask this question really?
How alive is dead? I mean, either you're alive or
you're dead, right? You've heard about people dying
on the table and then they were brought back. What did they do
to bring themselves back? How dead is dead? A dead man cannot do anything.
Is that not the truth? A dead man cannot do anything. And we are all born into this
world dead in spiritual trespasses and sins. Dead. But because of
the glory of the Son of God, their sickness, the ones that
he loved, is not unto death, eternal death. And to prove that,
verse 5 says, Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. When he had heard, therefore,
that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place
where he was. This messenger came running to
him and told him the news. And when our Lord heard the news,
he stayed right where he was for two more days. I can see
the look on that messenger's face. And he went on back and the Lord
just stayed where he was. Why did our Lord do that? To teach us something. To teach us something of what
he was talking about in Mark chapter 10. To teach us something
of the deadness of man. Why did he let him die? To teach us something of the
deadness of man. Something of why he came. Why did Christ come? He did that to teach us something
of what He did. On that cross, what did He do?
He died. Why? What did that do? He did that to show us something
of who He did it for too. Verse 7, Then after that saith
He to His disciples, Let us go into Judea again. His disciples
say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee,
and goest thou thither again? Jesus answered, Are there not
twelve hours in a day? If any man walk in the day, he
stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But
if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there's no
light in him. Who's our light? Christ is. He said, if a man walks in Christ,
he won't stumble. They said, you're going to do
this? In spite of what they said, he
said, if a man walks in Christ, he won't stumble. But without
the light of Christ, he's going to fall because Christ is not
in him. Verse 11, these things said he,
and after that he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth,
but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. What does that
mean? What we read back in Mark chapter
10, that's what it took for God to
quicken the dead. That's what it took. You know, people talk about salvation.
The question is, what does it take? What has to happen? What is the requirement? I should
tell you, this is what it took. We read it in Mark chapter 10. Verse 12, then said his disciples,
Lord, if he sleep he shall do well. How be it Jesus spake of
his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest
and sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes
that I was not there to the intent you may believe. Nevertheless,
let us go unto him. He said, I allowed Lazarus to
go through all that for your sake. Now think about this. Picture Lazarus over there. He's
in a bed. His sisters are there. Others
are with him. Can you imagine their sorrow
when he gave up the ghost? Can you imagine their pain, their
sadness? everything they had to go through,
everything they had to endure. You know why our Lord said he
allowed Lazarus to go through that and allowed his sisters
to go through that? He said, I allowed him to do
that for your sake, to the intent that you might believe. I allowed
him to go through everything. Sometimes we wonder, why am I
going through this? You know, it very well could
not be for your sake at all. It's for a reason, isn't it?
It might not be for yours. It might be for somebody else's.
I tell you this, I'm glad he allowed Lazarus and his sisters
to go through this. Verse 16 says, then said Thomas,
which is called Didymus unto his fellow disciples, let us
also go that we may die with him. Poor old Thomas, bless his
heart. He cannot ever say anything right. Nothing. Well, I tell you what,
if he's going to die, then we're going to help. We're going to
help him out. We're going to go swinging. Every work that Christ came to
accomplish, he had to accomplish that work alone. He had to do
it alone, but God mercifully recorded what Thomas said. He
recorded it in His Word for us to read because it tells us something
about what we read in Mark chapter 10. Our Lord said, they're going
to condemn me. They're going to mock me. They're
going to scourge me. They're going to spit on me. They're going to kill me. But the third day, I'm going
to rise again. And Thomas said, Oh, let us die
with Him. You know, it's appointed unto
man once to die. Man has to die once. You know
what a believer says? Oh, I hope my one time was with
Him. With Him. Verse 17. Then when
Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days
already. Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem about fifteen
furlongs off, and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary
to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon
as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary sat
still in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But
I know that even now, whatsoever thou will ask God, God will give
it thee. Jesus saith unto her, thy brother
shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. How is that possible? How is that possible? It's possible
because of what we read in Mark chapter 10. He, this is what we read in Mark
chapter 10, Jesus Christ shall rise again. He said right here, I am the
resurrection. I am the resurrection. Listen
to this. Every soul, and I'm speaking
to Gabe Stoniker when I say that. Gabe Stoniker, listen to this.
Every soul, every single soul, That is, in Him has already risen
with Him. Already died. You were already
buried. They already covered you. And you've already risen with
Him. Verse 26, He said, Believest thou this? He asked Martha, Do
you believe this? He's asking her right here, do
you believe salvation is a person? I'll continue our Bible study.
That's what he's asking. Do you believe? He said, I am
the resurrection. Do you believe salvation is a
person? Do you believe that salvation
is not a point in time? It's a person. Do you believe that the resurrection
is a person? Not a thing, it's not an event,
it's a person. Do you believe that life, we
talk about eternal life, do you believe that eternal life is
a person? Not a state of being, a person. Verse 27, she said unto him,
Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God,
which should come into the world. And when she had so said, she
went her way and called Mary her sister secretly, saying,
The Master is come and calleth for thee. As soon as she heard
that, she arose quickly and came unto him. Now Jesus was not yet
come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him.
The Jews then, which were with her in the house and comforted
her, when they saw Mary that she rose up hastily and went
out, followed her saying, she goeth unto the grave to weep
there. Then when Mary was come where
Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet saying unto
him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, And the Jews also weeping,
which came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. He troubled himself and said,
Where have you laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come
and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold, how
he loved him. We read about his sufferings,
we read about his death, and you know what a believer will
ask? Why me? No believer stands up proudly
crying, I deserve this. No believer. Why me? To me, you know, they
say this is the shortest verse in the Bible and So powerful, seeing our Lord,
it says, Jesus wept. Our Lord wept. Then said the Jews, behold, how
he loved him. Behold, how he loved him. Love
drew all the blueprints for salvation. Love brought him down to man. Love caused him to span that
mighty gulf. And when Christ endured everything
that he told his disciples he was going to endure. When he
did that. What we're about to read is what
he accomplished for you and me. When he did that, this is what
he accomplished for every soul that God the Father put in him. Every soul. Verse 37 says, And
some of them said, Could not this man which opened the eyes
of the blind have caused that even this man should not have
died? He died. Couldn't he have caused him?
He opened the eyes of the blind. Couldn't he have caused this
man to not die? Oh yes. He's able to cause that. Verse 38 says, Jesus therefore
again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave and
a stone lay upon it. Is he not describing his own
grave? Jesus therefore again groaning
in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave and a stone lay
upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the
stone. Why? It's finished. It's finished. Martha, the sister
of him that was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh,
for he hath been dead four days. You want to see a picture of
you and me? Would you like to get a big picture?
We can put a big billboard up of you and me. Martha said, Lord, by this time
he stinks. He's been dead four days. Lord, rigor mortis has set in. You try to make a body that rigor
mortis has totally set in, do something. Lord, his organs and his flesh, they've already started to decompose. Lord, his heart is shriveled. Lord, all the blood in him has
clotted up. Lord, his lungs have collapsed. There is no hope for him. You want to see a picture of
us? There is no hope for him. Verse
40, Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee that if thou
wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. Didn't
I say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Didn't I tell you that you would see what I accomplished for you? Now, wait a minute, Lord, are
you saying, believe so I can be saved if I believe I'll be
saved? No, he's about to save Lazarus. Lazarus is dead. He's been dead
four days already. What can a dead man do? He said, you believe and you'll
see salvation in that man right there. Verse 41, Then they took away
the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus
lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou
hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest
me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said
it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he
thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. As soon as he gave that command. Rigomortis, let him go. All of his organs and all of
his flesh revived. His heart, his blood started flowing, his
lungs. Verse 44 says, And he that was
dead came forth. bound hand and foot with grave
clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin, Jesus saith
unto them, Loose him and let him go." Loose him and let him go. What
is Mark chapter 10 verses 32 to 34 all about? What's it all
about? It's about the day that this
dead captive sinner was set free. That's what it's about. It's
all about the day Jesus Christ stormed the camp and liberated
every single one of us. Set every one of us free. Loose him and let him go. Loose her and let her go. Bound
by all that sin. Bound by all that self. Bound
by all that pride. Bound by all that religion. Take
it off. Set them free. Set them free. Is there any other subject that
a believer wants to talk about? Any other subject than the day
we were set free? A sinner who is still dead and
captive cannot rejoice in these things because they have not
been made alive and they have not been set free and they cannot
rejoice in it, they just cannot rejoice. But any sinner who God
has set his love on. Our Lord said the hour is coming.
I love this hour. I hope we see it again and again
and again. I'd love to see it right now, right here. I'd love
to see it right here. Our Lord said the hour is coming
and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of
God and they that hear shall live. If God ever gives life to a sinner,
if God ever shows him his captivity, if God ever shows him the day
he was set free, if God ever shows him who set him free, if
God ever shows him how he was set free, if he ever experiences
that, it will be the only thing he'll want to talk about for
the rest of his life. It'll be the only thing. That's the truth.
It'll be the only thing he wants to talk about. Believers get
together, we're about to get together. What do you want to
talk about? Let's talk about Christ. How
about we talk about His mercy, His grace, His goodness? How about we talk about the day
He set us free? That'll stay with a believer
throughout eternity. Right now, I thought about this.
Here we are. We're about to go eat. You know what's happening
right now in eternity? You know what's happening right
now in eternity? Every saint in glory is crying
unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. It never leaves. It never, never
leaves. That's the only subject to talk
about. I don't want to talk about what
I've done for Jesus. I want to talk about what He
did for me. It's the only subject to talk
about. It's the only subject we want, isn't it? May the Lord
bless our hearts with it. All right, let's stand together.